Signs Of Revival: Relaxed Restrictions Spell Boom Time For Wedding Industry | Kolkata News

KOLKATA: The big fat wedding industry that was staring at a washout due to the third wave has managed to minimise its losses due to the relaxation provided by the state government two weeks ago.
From wedding trousseau to flowers, from food and beverage to wedding shoots, several industries which are dependent on weddings have registered a surge in demand since the government allowed attendance of 200 people at a time at weddings from its previous order of only 50 people or less in the beginning of the year due to third wave.
Many couples who were on the verge of either cancelling their weddings, the auspicious period for weddings this year started January 15 onwards, changed their plans and went ahead once the government relaxed the restriction of only 50 people per wedding.
“November and December were very good months for business but onset of the third wave in the beginning of January threatened of a washout of an entire wedding season. Many clients started talking about cancelling the wedding due to strict restrictions,” said Sukriti Aggrawal, manager of an event management company that designs weddings in Kolkata and other cities in the eastern region. “But as soon as the government announced that 200 people can attend a wedding very few people cancelled. They made some minor adjustments and went ahead with the wedding which has saved several industries from incurring big losses.”
Several wedding dependent industries like catering, decoration and transportation employ hundreds of people who were staring at a loss of livelihood due to the third wave. “We hire most of the people on contractual basis during the wedding season. If weddings would have got cancelled, we wouldn’t have required so many people. This would have meant losses for us as well as these people,” said Samar Banerjee, who takes contract of catering in weddings. “Since only 200 people can attend a wedding the clients have reduced the items and quantity, but some people are also doing function in two shifts so that more people can attend.”
Even venues have not seen widespread cancellations during third wave. “Out of 35 weddings scheduled during this season only six have been cancelled which were during the beginning of the marriage season as government order easing restriction came in a little late,” said Keshav Saraf, owner of Orchid Banquets on Vivekananda Road.